Don’t fret: There’s another mobile RSS reader for you out there yet

Also in Android apps this week: 10000000 and an update to Google Tracks.

It’s been a bit of an interesting week for Android users. On the one hand, Samsung, the world’s biggest Android handset manufacturer, just announced the next iteration of its very popular smartphone, and on the other, Google announced the impending shutdown of Reader, which will inevitably impact mobile users too. Reader is slated to board up its doors on July 1, but that isn't stopping other RSS apps from updating (if they were based on Google's API), or users from looking for alternatives. This week, we’ll look at a few mobile apps for reading RSS on Android after Reader is shuttered, as well as a new puzzle-based RPG that has finally made its way over from other platforms. We'll also quickly touch on the minor update that hit Google's My Tracks this week.

Feedly allows users to peruse their RSS feeds and Tumblr logs with a user-friendly interface that’s fitted for phones and various tablet resolutions. The app instantly syncs feeds across different devices and does two-way syncing with Google Reader, so any articles that are saved in Feedly can be accessed at a later time on Google Reader, while any RSS feeds added to Feedly will be automatically added to Google Reader.

Right now, Feedly can pull RSS data from a connected Google account, but in the midst of this week’s Reader debacle, its developers published an official blog post detailing its plans for the future.

We have been working on a project called Normandy, which is a feedly clone of Google Reader API… When Google reader shuts down, feedly will seamlessly transition to the Normandy back end. So if you are a Google Reader user and using feedly, you are covered: the transition will be seamless.

So it looks like Feedly has plans to stick around and make it work. They've even offered a helpful set of tips for migrating over.

Pulse is another alternative for ditching Google Reader. The app was recently updated in late February to include a feature called Pulse Highlights, which showcases only stories that are of interest, based on what friends have shared and what you've highlighted. Pulse also features dual view, which offers a clean summary of each item or the ability to navigate to the site and read it in its entirety there. It currently integrates with your RSS feeds on Google Reader, though there's no word yet on what will become of those feeds once Reader shuts down.

Like your RSS feeds and your podcasts available in one place? RSS Demon keeps track of both of those for you. The app supports RSS, ATOM, and Podcast links, as well as the ability to download both podcasts and articles for offline reading. There’s also an option to use the SD card for cache storage, and RSS Demon features a customizable UI with support for different themes and colors.

The hit puzzle game 10000000 finally arrived on the Google Play Store this week. It’s a role-playing game that combines the puzzle mechanics of match-three-or-more games with side-scrolling action. You control an unnamed adventurer trapped in a dungeon and must earn 10,000,000 points in a single run to help him escape. Points are earned by collecting treasures, fighting monsters, and grabbing supplies, which you do by tile-matching while the protagonist is running through the dungeon. It’s an addictive game, already proven by its success on iOS, and it's well worth the time you might spend playing it this weekend.

Hikers, bikers, and general adventurers might be interested to know that Google has updated its My Tracks app this week. Android 4.2 users can take advantage of a customizable lock screen widget that displays current speed and mileage. Users can also sync and archive their tracks with Google Drive and then export them to external storage in GPX, KML, CSV, or TCX format.

I see that Google even went so far as to kill the RSS detector on Chrome, according to TechCrunch, out-and-out war: http://is.gd/9nLfEQ

However, as your article hints, I think there will be no shortage of RSS sources, apps, and readers. It'll be Google that's missing out on the fun, not Google's users.

Google gives noble words about "Ten things we know to be true" at http://www.google.com/about/company/philosophy/Including1. Focus on the user and all else will follow...4. Democracy on the web works....6. You can make money without doing evil....8. The need for information crosses all borders....[I noted 8 because of the implications of killing Google Reader as a news source in some otherwise censored areas, as I've seen mentioned by other writers recently.]

Somebody's going to come up with a fantastic setup that syncs RSS feeds through a simple Dropbox sync'd database. Then they get bought out by Dropbox, which gets bought out by Google, and the whole lot gets cancelled within the year.

Alas, the biggest loss with Google Reader is still not addressed: Losing it's ability to act as a back end to virtually any RSS reader. So much better to not need worry about re-subscribing to all your RSS feeds if you change readers, and to ensure your desktop/mobile devices keep perfectly synced at all times.

Feedly does this, but you're locked into Feedly and the devices it exists on. You don't have the option of using different apps on different devices anymore.

Been using Feedly since the announcement about Reader. I love the desktop interface, but so far the Android app is a little odd. It's full of gestures so I find it a bit hard to navigate, and I can't seem to figure out how to view an indivudual feed or mark an item as unread. Also minus points for using its own browser.

EDIT: Apparently I'm just a bit dense where it comes to the mark unread or individual feeds.

Been using Feedly since the announcement about Reader. I love the desktop interface, but so far the Android app is a little odd. It's full of gestures so I find it a bit hard to navigate, and I can't seem to figure out how to view an indivudual feed or mark an item as unread. Also minus points for using its own browser.

EDIT: Apparently I'm just a bit dense where it comes to the mark unread or individual feeds.

I've changed to Feedly as well, and while I'm not too fond of all the flashyness of the Android app, it actually works better for my flow: I don't really use the lists all that often, I just want to go through full articles from one end to the other. Since Feedly allows me to go straight to the "Latest" part, it is actually faster than Reader for me. The widget sucks (no "Latest" feed), though.

However, their Desktop functionality seems to have an issue: I use mark as read on selection, as well as J/K to go through articles (again, in the "full articles" view), and today I was returning to the Feedly tab after a while, and pressed J to go to next article. That worked fine, but it seems it woke Feedly up somehow; as I had read half the article, Feedly decided that it wanted to do a refresh. *poof* and the article was gone, replaced by shiny new articles.

In any case, Google has managed to piss off a lot of people. Chrome's share of the market is going to plummet as users go elsewhere.

I don't see how that follows. Chrome hasn't changed, so the reasons for using it haven't changed.

what point do you just stop trusting Google? I refuse to "log in" to chrome, so I'm not a useful customer for that product.Will they refuse access to Google sites for non logged in users?Do something else miserable?

I can't stand the Feedly app. Too much flash, no way to just get a list of my articles and scroll through them with no cruft. Of course, until Reader got the axe there was no reason to build a frontend like that, so maybe there'll be a "simple mode" or something for the people who just want the basic experience.

They are saying that the caldav api is for whitelisted devs after sept of this year. Others can use the google calendar api.

They told Microsoft that EAS was out and they had to support "open" IMAP+CardDAV+CalDAV, but now, just months later turn around a deprecate CalDAV. Microsoft will be whitelisted, but the whole thing is hypocritical.

I honestly thought Google Reader was axed last year. I never used it, so I just said, "Oh, okay" when I heard about it. I must have misheard, because the backlash I am seeing did not happen when I heard what I thought I heard. Aren't Pulse and Flipboard sufficient for that?

The real story in Google app news this weekend however, is Google blacklisting the ad blockers. We could all re-hash the whole "to block or not to block" debate, but we've all been over it numerous times and minds aren't likely to be changed. Moving past that, it's interesting that Google cites a rule that apps must not interfere with other apps. While on the surface it might seem that ad blockers do exactly that (and the press just ate it up without researching it), ad blockers do not, in fact, interfere with any other app. All they do is edit the HOSTS file, which already existed on every Android phone, including non-rooted ones. Every computer has a HOSTS file. iPhones and Xboxes might even have them, but I'm not sure. Also, how do we feel about Google blacklisting applications that threaten their core business (advertising)? Are competitors to their apps (e.g. Yahoo Mail) next? Will ad blocking be blacklisted from Chrome (on your desktop) as well? These are the questions we should be asking.

In any case, and I'm surprised it's taken this long, there's a new (?) store on Android... only, it isn't a store. It's a proper repo, like Linux distros have. It's called F-Droid, and it only stocks FOSS (Free, Open Source Software). It doesn't care if the contents of the app threaten someone's business. Emulators and ad blockers are welcome. It will also offer to keep other FOSS apps on your phone, such as FBReader, Firefox, Markers, Wikipedia, and WordPress up to date. It's got a nice dark Holo interface, but none of the apps appear to have screenshots. But, it looks like you can install older versions if, for whatever reason, you want to. And if you're a license junkie, it will tell you exactly what kind of license the app sports (LGPL and GPL3 are a couple I've seen, as well as Public Domain). What's really exciting about F-Droid is, if you're a hardcore Open Source fan, you could install an AOSP ROM, something like CyanogenMod, skip Gapps, install F-Droid, and get all your apps there. I don't think it has enough of a selection to satisfy most smartphone users, but if you can get away from the philosophy of using apps for everything, you really can get a lot done in a browser, and you get Firefox, as well as the stock browser.

We launched Google Reader in 2005 in an effort to make it easy for people to discover and keep tabs on their favorite websites. While the product has a loyal following, over the years usage has declined. So, on July 1, 2013, we will retire Google Reader. Users and developers interested in RSS alternatives can export their data, including their subscriptions, with Google Takeout over the course of the next four months.

Although this is not said explicitly, I think this means that both the front and back ends will disappear, so that apps that rely on the Google Reader API won't work any more, unless a new back end can be found. Feedly have announced their own back end called Normandy which will be available to third party apps. This still requires some action by app developers, so switching to another app won't help to avoid the July deadline unless the developer can use the Normandy API or something else equivalent to the Google Reader API.

This doesn't apply to RSS reader services which already have some kind of account system (your list of feeds is stored in your account) but if you go that way you are locked into one company's readers - the advantage of the Google Reader back end is that it allows you to choose from a large number of competing front end apps.

I installed http://tt-rss.org on my raspberrypi at home and couldn't be happier. Its a very simple lighttpd/php/postgresql install (other HTTPds and databases are available) and has replaced Google reader entirely for me.

Importing your opml feeds from Google reader is simple. (Whether or not you feel angry at Google shutting down a free service you're "entitled" to, you have to commend them for their support of open exports)

It even has an android app and mobile webui!

I'm hoping development is helped by the influx of new users.

I feel like this is a wake up call to stop relying on these cloud services. I'm going self-hosted now...

I run a web based reader called FeedsAnywhere. We're pretty small at the moment, but it's easy to switch from Google Reader (http://feedsanywhere.com/blog/importing ... gle_reader) and syncing goes both ways so if you don't like it anything you have marked read, starred, categorized, etc. will still be reflected in Google Reader for the next reader you want to try.

FeedsAnywhere is scalable from phones through tablets and desktops so you can have all of the same features on each. It also creates an Interesting feed based on stories you read, star, etc., creates groups of similar items, and detects duplicates. I typically use the Interesting feed or some categories I created, but if you don't like us calculating interesting items for you it can be disabled.

I can't stand the Feedly app. Too much flash, no way to just get a list of my articles and scroll through them with no cruft. Of course, until Reader got the axe there was no reason to build a frontend like that, so maybe there'll be a "simple mode" or something for the people who just want the basic experience.

I installed http://tt-rss.org on my raspberrypi at home and couldn't be happier. Its a very simple lighttpd/php/postgresql install (other HTTPds and databases are available) and has replaced Google reader entirely for me.

Importing your opml feeds from Google reader is simple. (Whether or not you feel angry at Google shutting down a free service you're "entitled" to, you have to commend them for their support of open exports)

It even has an android app and mobile webui!

I'm hoping development is helped by the influx of new users.

I feel like this is a wake up call to stop relying on these cloud services. I'm going self-hosted now...

This sounds like a better solution than feedly. Ill put this on one of my VMs and try it out. My RPi is tied up with Rasplex right now (www.rasplex.com).

Configure it to go directly to latest, then you can just touch the first article, and swipe right from that point. Even Google Reader wasn't that simple (I don't think I changed any other options. Maybe unless "Auto mark as read" isn't default).

If you want to browse your folders though, I'm afraid there's no way around the flashy stuff

I installed http://tt-rss.org on my raspberrypi at home and couldn't be happier. Its a very simple lighttpd/php/postgresql install (other HTTPds and databases are available) and has replaced Google reader entirely for me.

This sounds like a better solution than feedly. Ill put this on one of my VMs and try it out. My RPi is tied up with Rasplex right now (http://www.rasplex.com).

I picked up the original 256mb version and then the 512mb when they were released... so yeah the former is running nginx/php and the latter postgres and some other random things... I haven't exactly benchmarked it but its good enough.

*facepalm* Just saw this: Another huge drawback in (at least desktop) Feedly compared to Reader: "Mark all as read" (the checkmark) doesn't only mark the ones currently on-screen as read, but also any that may have arrived after last refresh.

This may not matter to some, but if you're reading through old articles, and after a while decide that the remaining articles are so old you don't care anymore, in Reader you could just mark all as read, resting assured that any new ones that had arrived after you loaded the page would not be marked.

Feedly requires a plugin and seems to have a fixation on some damn "magazine" layout. I don't always use a machine on which I can install such a thing, nor do I want that sort of layout. I have flipboard for casual browsing and am happy to do that on my phone.

I honestly thought Google Reader was axed last year. I never used it, so I just said, "Oh, okay" when I heard about it. I must have misheard, because the backlash I am seeing did not happen when I heard what I thought I heard. Aren't Pulse and Flipboard sufficient for that?

Pulse and Flipboard are aimed more at people who want the news curating done for them, and both can only sync their feeds via Google Reader, at least for right now. I would love to have one app/platform/website that would show me all the hundreds of feeds I have in Google Reader, sorted by topic *and* news from other sources on same or similar topics that I might otherwise not be aware of. Flipboard segregates your feeds and the other content, so I go straight to my feeds, and thus would miss if there were something interesting in the curated content. (Or, when I was using Flipboard, I did. Precisely for this reason, I stopped using it.)

So, if your goal is "stay abreast of news on important topics" and you're content to let someone else decide what sources belong in there, yes, Pulse and Flipboard are great--possibly even better than Google Reader, depending on what topics are important to you. But if your goal is "stay abreast of these specific sources of news" or "stay abreast of news on important topics and/or from these specific sources", then Flipboard isn't your solution. Pulse might be--I'm still digging into it to figure out what all it can do and how it can be configured.

None that you've tried since the announcement do what? I believe feedly & tt-rss both have capable websites for example.

Well, for starters Feedly doesn't work in a regular webbrowser--you need to install a plugin. That means I can't use it at work (where I'm not allowed to install stuff). It also means I can't use it in Fluid, which is how I currently handle RSS on the desktop of my main computer, rather than clutter up my "regular" webbrowser with a whole bunch of tabs from my news reading.

I installed http://tt-rss.org on my raspberrypi at home and couldn't be happier. Its a very simple lighttpd/php/postgresql install (other HTTPds and databases are available) and has replaced Google reader entirely for me.

Importing your opml feeds from Google reader is simple. (Whether or not you feel angry at Google shutting down a free service you're "entitled" to, you have to commend them for their support of open exports)

It even has an android app and mobile webui!

I'm hoping development is helped by the influx of new users.

I feel like this is a wake up call to stop relying on these cloud services. I'm going self-hosted now...

Of course, self-hosted requires (1) a certain amount of technical know-how and (2) a computer that is always on, connected to an internet connection that is always on (and has the necessary outside access configured). I suspect everyone on this website has both, but I wouldn't *mind* letting my desktop machine nap once in a while, and I'd rather not have to take the time to learn #1. And that is no solution for the many people I know who rely on Google Reader for their news, but have neither.